Sustainable Buildings 101 Seminar Series

The UBC Emerging Green Builders are a network of students, scholars, professors, practitioners, and administrators who are concerned with the future of the built environment. They have set up a 5 part seminar series called Sustainable Buildings 101 which will occur throughout the Fall semester. It is primarily meant to be an introduction to sustainable buildings for people who are unaware or have little knowledge about them but are interested in learning more. Each talk will have a different industry professional speaking on a different aspect of green buildings.

The first seminar, Introduction to the Series: Sustainable Buildings 101 by Michael Driedger, B.A. Dip T LEED AP, Sustainability Research Advisor, Busby Perkins & Will will be Thursday October 8 at 5:30 in C.K. Choi room 120.

If you have the time, I definitely recommend you check out this or any of the upcoming seminars.

You can also get some more information from the Emerging Green Builders website at http://tinyurl.com/ubcegb

- Jeff

Club Mech BBQ

Club MECH hosted a BBQ on September 30th and the UBC ASHRAE Student Chapter was there recruiting for new members. We spoke to a lot of students and were pleased with the amount of interest in the club. Thanks to everyone who came out for a burger and thanks again to Club MECH for allowing us to participate.

ASHRAE BC September 2009 Meeting

On September 16, the ASHRAE BC Chapter hosted a tour of the new Vancouver Convention Centre. Ross Alger, Jacob Allen, Dr. Nima Atabaki, and myself were priveliged to take part in this tour as representatives of the UBC Student Chapter.

The evening began with a social mixer, followed by presentations on the building architecture and mechanical systems, and finally a behind the scenes tour. The mechanical systems were designed to improve building efficiency by only heating and cooling the areas that are being used. For example, when we moved from the hallway where the social mixer was being held into the conference room, the system closed the damper in the hallway and opened the damper in the conference room. Although this is a simple concept, the controls behind this operation are relatively complex.

Another key feature of the Convention Centre was the green roof, which was irrigated by treated black water. This green roof is the largest non-industrial living roof in North America, and it helps to reduce the thermal load on the building. Other features we were impressed with were the open loop sea water heating and cooling, and the fish habitat that was built into the foundations. All in all, we were very impressed with the whole event, and I strongly encourage everyone to take part in the next ASHRAE BC meeting which will be held on October 14 at the Croatian Cultural Centre.

Best Regards,

Jeff Snow

President's Welcome

As the new president of the UBC ASHRAE Student Chapter I'd first like to welcome everyone to the new ASHRAE year. I'm very excited to be involved in this year's executive since the Student Chapter provides a great opportunity to learn about sustainable HVAC design, and network with industry. There have been a few changes since we last met, as some of our members have graduated and left university life. The new executive consists of myself as President, Ross Alger as Vice President, and Kelly Ng as secretary. We have set out a few goals for this year, including increasing the chapter membership, organizing tours of LEED certified buildings, and bringing in engineers from industry to discuss interesting HVAC topics. We are hoping to hold meetings approximately once per month, and we are currently evaluating the availability of our existing members to find a time that works best for everyone's schedules. Our first chapter meeting of the year should occur sometime in early October where we will try to identify which topics are of interest to students, as well as further discuss the goals for the new year.
I would also like to invite everyone to come to the barbeque on Wednesday September 30, which is being put on by Club Mech. It will be held outside of CEME, and the ASHRAE Student Chapter executives will be there to speak with anyone interested in joining. If you have an interest in HVAC or in sustainable design, or if you would like to learn more about the Student Chapter I encourage you to come out and visit us. I hope to see you there.

Best Regards,

Jeff Snow

UBC MECH 457 Student Team Places 3rd in the Annual ASHRAE Student Design Competition

This past year, a group of UBC students entered their MECH 457 project into the ‘System Design Category’ of the annual ASHRAE Student Design Competition. The team secured third place, tied with the University of Central Florida. For their great achievement, ASHRAE will provide a trip for one team representative to attend the winter meeting in Orlando in 2010.

Please join me in congratulating the team members and in thanking Mr. Geoff McDonell, P. Eng., from Omicron for acting as the industrial mentor for the project. The project was supervised by Dr. Nima Atabaki, P. Eng. (UBC Department of Mechanical Engineering). Above is a photo of the team members (from L-R: Brent Kavelaars, Chu Lin, Ara Beittoei (not present), Tapio Pikkarainen (not present), Jensen Metchie (not present)).